Paradoxers, take note...

When Sheldon and Leonard first laid eyes on Penny, they had a fairly normal conversation:

LEONARD

New neighbor?

SHELDON

Evidently.

LEONARD

Significant improvement over the old neighbor.

SHELDON

Two hundred pound transvestite with a

skin condition? Yes, she is.

Recently I was lucky enough to acquire

a copy of the pilot script signed by Kaley, Johnny, and Jim. Pilot episodes are tricky things - characters often aren't quite defined yet, and there are one or two lines in the Big Bang Theory pilot that I think most fans quietly agree are not truly canon. the pilot script can be even further removed from what the show becomes. It's been widely discussed that the first pilot for TBBT featured a Penny character who was a kind of tough goth chick (or punk, or something like that. I forget). I believe this was even filmed, but it just didn't work, and they recast with Kaley Cuoco in the role.

I haven't even read the whole thing, but I almost immediately noticed a little variation in the above dialogue that Sheldon/Penny shippers (did I say that right?) will no doubt find very interesting. Click to enlarge:

Did you get that? Sheldon's first impression of Penny was that she is incandescently attractive!

in·can·des·cent

 

–adjective

1.

(of light) produced by incandescence.

2.

glowing or white with heat.

3.

intensely bright; brilliant.

4.

brilliant; masterly; extraordinarily lucid: an incandescent masterpiece; incandescent wit.

5.

aglow with ardor, purpose, etc.: the incandescent vitality of youth.

You can choose for yourself which definition of "incandescent" you think Sheldon was using:

1) bright, 2)hot, 3) really bright, 4) brilliant, or 5) the perfect woman...

I'll let you know if I come across any more little gems in the script.

Go there in your car automobile

I've stated before that I like the TV show Flash Forward. If you follow me on twitter (@fancollectrgeek) you know they often shoot in places I go in real life - a bird store, a diner that doubled as both a coffee shop and a cocktail lounge within ten minutes on the show, and the hospital, which is actually an office building much of my work takes place in.

Now, above, they've created my favorite Fake-Address-You-Aren't-Even-Really-Supposed-To-Read: 946 Avenue Street. How perfectly generic! This is one of the things I enjoy about watching on a huge projector screen, you can catch little details.

This has been widely reported elsewhere online, but I think many of the readers I know wouldn't have seen those: the first episode had a very obvious callout to Lost: a billboard for Oceanic Airlines right in the center background. I didn't catch until the recent recap of the series, which I saw in high def, that it reads "Perfect Safety Record" on the top - obviously, this is not the world that lost Oceanic Flight 815 to the mysterious island. If you're watching Lost now, you may wonder (spoiler) does that mean it's set in the alternate world we're seeing now, where the flight never crashed? Maybe... I guess we'll only know for sure if everyone on the show suddenly blacks out for two minutes seventeen seconds...

Collecting, Depression, and Hoarding 101: an overview

Sorry I've been away so long.

The fairly recent suicides of Marie Osmond's son Michael Blosil and Walter Koenig's son Andrew both seem to have been related to chronic depression. It's a terrible shame to lose them both to that, but it's difficult to understand how extreme chronic depression can be, how it can take over and sour your thoughts. I am lucky enough to have recently realized I was depressed to an extreme point: the depths my spirits had sunk to were far, far more extreme than the situation I found my life in called for. I say I'm lucky to have realized this because I spoke to my doctor and found it easily treatable - I am much better, feeling myself, and able to handle things emotionally in a reasonable manner.

Collectors seem to be more susceptible to depression than your average person. Somewhere on that scale from the casual collector, past the completist, and on to the obsessive hoarder is a point where objects are being accumulated and held onto for emotional reasons - the hoarder can't bare to part with anything because of a great attachment to them. (Of course, I would hope anyone who collects at least does it for the emotional reason "because they like to" but that isn't always the case). It's an easy trap

to fall into: if you have any fond memories attached to it, it becomes easier to just find a box or a corner to shove the item into than to decide to get rid of it. I was holding onto this ratty old Trapper Keeper for decades, just because it bore the name in stickers of the ship from a Star Trek parody comic book I wrote in high school. U.S.S. Apathy. (Get it? Apathy is an antonym of Enterprise. Ha.) When I came across it recently, I was able to chuck it out, but took this photo just in case I ever wanted to gaze on it fondly again. Actually, I found it more useful here in the blog than I feel any sense of nostalgia on viewing it.

Hoarders are interesting, and there's a show on A&E that tries to help a couple of them clean up their act every week. (Be careful with that link - every time I go to the page the preview blasts me with static. Just skip it.) It's a bit heavy handed and grim, and I've found it very repetitive after watching several shows, but it can still be fascinating to look at what people get themselves into. I used to study these shows with a "there but for the grace of God go I" attitude, always finding it easier to clean out the closet a bit after viewing. This image shows the clutter of a beer can collector - over 55 thousand cans in boxes littering his house - being transferred to the shelves long ago made for their display. (Apparently to the psychologist on site, organization is the difference between a collector and a hoarder. I think that's simplifying it a bit...) you can see a clip from this show here. After a short Nyquil commercial. Sigh.

I'm rambling a bit here, but I guess my most important message is if you find yourself extremely depressed, talk to someone, at least your doctor. I'd relate that to collecting, or feeling like a geek, but there's really no reason to qualify it.

Why the Star Trek books up top? When my friend Bruce passed away, I inherited his set of all the autobiographies of the Star trek cast. They each wrote one except for DeForest Kelley, who passed away before they got started. I read them all, and Walter Koenig's just happened to be the best read, followed by James Doohan's, which I seem to have misplaced. George Takei's was okay, but it was written before he came out of the closet, and I was reading it after, so it suffered from obvious omissions of any romantic life at all, and allusions to minor encounters with women as bigger than they were. I honestly think he'd do well to rewrite it in an expanded, more honest version - not sordid or illicit, but, well, if it was tough to be a Japanese-American growing up in mostly hispanic East L.A. after World War II, it must have been even harder to be gay also.

Thanks for listening. I'm always glad to hear your thoughts in comments or at fancollectorgeek@earthlink.net. I will be back with more on a lighter note very, very soon - no more month long breaks!

More views from Pasadena

As always, life disrupts intentions to post more regularly, so I'm finally just going to post more of the best views from the Christmas party shared last time. Above, just a little bit more of a view of Penny's kitchen than we usually get.
I'm not sure how many of these holiday decorations were there for the holiday episode this year, "The Maternal Congruence," and how many were placed by the set decorators (at least one of whom was in attendance) for the party. (Does Penny know the bald guy in the frame?)

I threw this photo in to show you (well, just barely) one of the rarest Big Bang Theory

items out there: a clear-front refrigerator that sits in the back of the stage, with a "Big Bang Theory"panel on top where the brand name usually goes. Sorry it's so dark, but I really like this sort of thing. There's one (well, probably only one) in the entire world. It would go great in a fan's rec room, right by this custom ping pong table Kuyal Nayyar tweeted this picture of awhile ago. Aside from a prop, where are you going to find anything rarer than these?

Sort of a more normal angle from Leonard's desk towards the door - looks like the desk has some extra party related ribbons and candy on it.

Finally I lightened up a bit this view from high in the audience area, showing the sets laid out exactly as you see them on TV - Penny's apartment to the left, the hall, then the living room and kitchen. Looks like Sheldon's bedroom is off to the right of that, in the same location where I've seen the college cafeteria, and the lecture room Sheldon and Leonard came to blows in. To the left of Penny's apartment I've seen Leonard's room ("It's cooler when girls aren't looking at it.), the Physics Bowl, and Wolowitz's bedroom. Oh yeah, and once, the lobby of the building where Penny and Sheldon got their mail was being filmed way off to the left, out of sight of the audience.

That's all for now - just been wanting to get back to posting more regularly, of course. I hope you enjoy these views.

From the Desk of Doctor Sheldon Cooper: Literally

Some departments at Warner Brothers this year had the unique pleasure of holding their holiday parties on Stage 25, home of The Big Bang Theory set! I was not able to attend - employees only for these functions, which is fair - but someone very special to me went, and was able to share some terrific photography with me. These are just a couple of choice photos, I have plenty more to share later.

From up closer than we ever get to see Sheldon's desk, a view of superhero figures high in the kitchen that I'd never seen before - Batgirl, Superman, and possibly Black Canary look on frpom above the cookie jar made famous in "The Bat Jar Conjecture" - one of the episodes I got to see live. The folder - usually visible on Sheldon's desk right where it is here, is labelled "Hemoglobin test results." If I didn't know about the random nature of such set dressing, I'd be wondering what our favorite physicist is doing mucking around in the life sciences?

In this wide study of Sheldon's room, I'm glad to see one of the "House of Secrets" posters that used to be visible in the back has moved to a spot on his bedside not generally seen on the show. I believe these are called "fly"walls - if I remember correctly - extensions of the set often containing details never seen on screen. Don't worry about the photo on Sheldon's bedside, by the way - it's not a prop from the show, but was placed there as a gag by one of the gals taking pictures at the party.

Happy Holidays to all who find their way here - Big Bang fans and Michael Jackson researchers from all over the world alike. And also, happy holidays to my family and friends who make it here, and those of you afflicted with that interest called "collecting" that enjoy hearing about my struggles with the accumulative urge.

Happy holidays!!

The Persistence of Vision Principle

I've said before that I watch pretty much anything that's animated. While that's not entirely true, more discerning viewers than I might have missed a surprise appearance by Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny from The Big Bang Theory on tonight's episode of Family Guy, "Business Guy." To summarize:

When Peter's father-in-law Carter Pewterschmidt is in a coma, Peter ends up in charge of his company, Pewterschmidt Industries. When Carter recovers, Peter stays in control of the company and as Carter's boss, forces him to do embarrassing things, like go cubicle to cubicle inviting coworkers to come over for a Big Bang Theory viewing party.

When no one wants to come over, Peter still makes him throw the party. Even his wife won't watch with Carter, but we get to see a clip of the show:

Sheldon: I'll have you know that I can bench press over 630 nanograms.

Leonard: Sheldon, that's less than two pounds.

Sheldon: Sounded better the way I said it.

Carter (watching): HA ha ha ha! Ohh, when I tell that joke at work tomorrow, people are going to be sorry they didn't come. This, this was a good night.

Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons recorded their characters voices! I think they did a pretty good job of animating the look of the living room set, too. But is this show taking a cheap shot at BBT? No, for Family Guy, this is a virtual love letter. And besides, at the end of the episode:

Carter invites Dr. House (actually voiced by Hugh Laurie) who he and Lois caught posing as a swamp monster, over to his house next week for a viewing of The Big Bang Theory.

Lois: Daddy, you don't have to do that any more.

Carter: I know, I know. I like it now.

You see, they were posing as swamp monsters to trick Peter into giving back control of the company. If you watch Family Guy, you understand. If you don't, but you want to see the BBT guys animated, you should be able to catch it soon on Adult Swim or Hulu.

Friends to Big Bang Theory in Two Moves...

I've always been a fan of obscure television. It's like, the harder a show is to see, the more interested I am in it. The less people have heard about it, the more I want to know about it. (Remember Struck By Lightning? The sitcom starring Jack Elam as the Frankenstein monster? No?). Whe I was a kid, with my first Beta VCR, the Syracuse papers used to always say on the tv page when a show was airing for the last time - and I would always tape it. That's why I have a Beta tape somewhere with the last episode of AfterMASH on it, and one episode of Dreams, the 80's trippy music video inspired dramedy starring John Stamos and Jami Gertz as members of a struggling rock & roll band. That's also probably why I bought the DVD set of the first season of Joey, the Friends spin-off starring Matt LeBlanc in the continuing adventures of actor Joey Tribbiani, moved to Los Angeles.

Of course, I also got it because of my interest in filming locations. The apartment house shown as Joey's on the show was less than a block from the apartment I lived in up until a year ago. There's a kind of a kick in seeing a real life location you know on TV in fictionalized form. (Notice how much bluer the sky is on tv....hmmmm)

As an aside, I want to relay a story Penn Jillette told on his radio about the time he guest starred on a fourth or fifth season episode of Friends. He said it was really interesting to observe the cast. They were all running around stressing about holding onto the level of fame they had obtained on the show. Only one of them was just enjoying every minute of it: Matt LeBlanc. So, in a way, it's kind of nice that he was the one that ended up with his own program for two more years than the rest of them.

Just recently I revisited Joey through the DVD set for the first time since they aired. I was kind of surprised to find that Joey's nephew Michael, played by Paulo Costanzo, really reminded me of the guys on The Big Bang Theory. Michael is a grad student at Cal Tech, and the humor comes out of his contrast with the less bright Joey:

Michael: Actually, right now we're designing a mock up for an escape module from the International Space Station.

Joey: (laughing) What are you, a rocket scientist?

Michael: (deadpan) Yes.

Sound familiar? But the similarity doesn't end there:

Notice that Michael tends to dress in a wide range of cool but nerdy t-shirts. Look familiar?

Well, I figured this unexpected little similarity between a fairly forgotten show and TV's new number one comedy might be fun about. I was more surprised, though, when I got to the third episode: Joey and the Party. In it, Joey and Michael throw a party to get to know their neighbors, and Michael's longtime rival Seth Tobin shows up with a girlfriend - meaning Michael is the last guy from his school to have a serious relationship. (Plot). So check out Seth when he shows up at the party:

That's right - Simon Helberg, better known as Howard Wolowitz on Big Bang. He's dressed more like Leonard, but his character is very similar to the Howard we all know.

Seth: I'm bench pressing 90 pounds. Can you bench press your body weight?

Even more like Howard, from the end, when he and Michael reveal that they've been jealous of each other for years, and his girlfriend is a fake:

Michael: Seth, why did you lie?

Seth: So I could beat you for once, ok? You got into CalTech's doctoral department, I got rejected. You've got this killer apartment, I live at home and share a bathroom with my grandmother!

I'm not, by any means, suggesting that anything on The Big Bang Theory was taken from, or even inspired by Joey... but it's likely that Simon had some great scenes on his reel when he was being considered for the part of Howard Wolowitz.

...I wonder of Matt LeBlanc gave him any acting tips?